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In 1492 it took Christopher Columbus two months to sail across the Atlantic. In late 2017 it
took Pete Robinson 29 days.
Pete and three friends – George
Biggar, Stuart Watts and Richard Taylor – took part in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge to row across the Atlantic. They set off from San Sebastiȧn in La Gomera in the Canary Islands on 14th December 2017 in their 26-foot boat and reached Nelson’s Dockyard, English Harbour, in Antigua and Barbuda 29 days, 14 hours and 34 minutes (and 3,000 miles) later. They beat 28 other boats in the race and set a new world record for a crossing by a rowboat, lowering the previous best time by six days.
Before the Atlantic crossing, Pete had been working in property development in Hong Kong, Sydney and, most recently, with Knight Frank in London.
How did the big record-beating row come about? Pete has form when it comes to pushing himself successfully through hard physical targets. In July 2016 he and Stuart cycled the length of Scotland and England – except they did it the wrong way round, from north to south, John O’Groats to Land’s End, in seven days unsupported. It is normally done south to north, to benefit from the prevailing winds. “But we only discovered that after we’d finished,” Pete quipped.
Immediately after that, the two friends were on the train back to London, facing the prospect of commuting back to work the next day. “We thought, ok what’s next instead?” he said.
Pete wanted to raise money for charity and set his sights on something a bit bigger than running a marathon in fancy dress – “to make more of an impact and
raise more money.”
Pete knew of an Army friend who
had previously rowed the Atlantic four years ago. “He said it was hard and one of the greatest challenges he’d faced, so we thought we’d do that,” he explained. Pete had done one term of rowing at Oundle, but mainly had a rugby focus at school.
Pete and Stu recruited George and Dicky. “We were all similar height –
about 6ft 4in – and good athletes, and all in our early 30s, age-wise,” Pete said. “No question, though, the four of us were complete amateurs when it came to rowing the Atlantic.”
There are two main routes across the Atlantic – the northern route, which goes west to east, taking advantage of the westerlies; and the southern route, which goes east to west and follows the trade winds.
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THE OLD OUNDELIAN 2017 –2018
FEATURE
Record-breaker!
Pete Robinson (Ldr 03) tells Mark Moore (Sc 68) about his historic row across the Atlantic